Annabelle’s Bastion

Skeletons are pretty scary, especially when seated in a dark corner and covered below its tilted down head by a dark cloak.

Embarrassingly enough, Anna did scream a little when she stumbled onto it while exploring the room. Even now, she couldn’t quite work up the courage to check it out.

On the stage-like platform, there was only a single rectangular stand with a yellow jewel that was likely the key Anna had been searching for. But she couldn’t remove it. On the stand’s body were three holes, two of them filled with large, geometric gems. One slot was empty.

She continued walking around the stand, looking at the odd runic symbols that went from the jewel’s stand to the ground. Occasionally, the symbols would pulse with a faint light.

While she was tempted to grab it—a seemingly simple task—it seemed to be powering something. The last thing she wanted was to risk the whole place collapsing on her.

At first, she thought it was the statues, but that seemed untrue. If it were, then her clone… her alter ego wouldn’t have made it seem like she had to fight it. Plus, the empty slot was probably for that statue’s core.

“It’s probably the thing preventing it from entering the room, too. Maybe a control device?”

Her theory was that if she were to survive whatever protection it had and take it, whatever orders the statue had preventing it from entering this room would be gone.

Of course, she had known this for over an hour.

But she really didn’t want to mess around with skeletal remains!

Yet, that was obviously what she had to do—search a dead body. The peak of disrespect! It definitely had whatever was in this room that led to her alter ego claiming she should be able to easily get out.

“Well…” She hesitatingly turned toward the darker corner of the room. Even looking in that direction made her chest tighten. But she had little choice but to steel herself. “Here I go.”

It was an alien, after all… she was definitely curious about what kind of skeletal structure it had behind that dark cloak.

One deep breath later, she slowly approached the body.

The most likely scenario was that they were grievously injured by the statues, which made Anna feel all the more terrible.

Whoever this was, without them, she would not have made it to the room.

With that realization, her nervousness was replaced by a heaviness.

She approached the body and knelt down, bowing her head slightly in silent prayer to whatever god they had.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she carefully lifted the cloak.

When she hesitatingly opened her eyes, she saw what looked like… a humanoid skeleton.

But it definitely wasn’t human.

It had the structure she was at least somewhat familiar with, but the colors were off. Every bone, from the scalp to the toe, was pearly white.

“It’s so… beautiful.”

Rather than the ugly mess she expected, the bones were too white and glossy. She wasn’t even sure if it was an actual corpse anymore! It looked more like a grim statue in an art museum.

Until she saw the sword by its side, a folded piece of paper, and a satchel.

Further lifting of the cloak revealed that a few of their ribs were completely shattered. It looked like it was from the back, too.

She sighed; any wonder she had about the appearance of the bones effectively erased.

They likely had the same idea Anna did but died from the wound inflicted by the rampaging statue.

Not every race had enhancements. Actually, did every race have their own distinct natural ability? A question for another day.

Anna picked up the note, but as she expected, it was unreadable. It looked similar to the runic symbols but written in far more beautiful writing. The entire page was covered, a long letter that likely held their last words… words written with their dying breaths.

“I’ll definitely see to it this finds the right person,” Anna said, her ring expanding above her hand as she carefully pulled the letter into her space. “Definitely.”

As curious as she was, she would resist trying to read it herself. She already felt bad for needing to use this person for her own escape; the last thing she would do was ruin their sanctity.

Next was the blade.

The longsword’s leather-looking sheath had silver, metallic floral patterns running down its sides to connect at the metal tip on the bottom. A white gem lay embedded on both sides of the bottom surface.

Different colored gems adorned both sides of the silver, floral-designed hilt, one as black as Anna’s ring and the other as golden as Aria’s eyes. The pommel was a dragon’s head holding another white pearl in its jaw.

“This is… so beautiful.” Anna wasn’t a swordsman, nor had she ever admired one before, but this was a work of magnificent art.

Anna picked it up carefully, feeling the immense weight, one contradictory to even a longsword’s size. 

“Woah… this feels so heavy!”

She grabbed the hilt with both hands, barely able to lift it… but couldn’t pull the sword out.

“OW!” Anna exclaimed, a strong electric shock running down her palm, forcing her to drop the sword!

It thudded heavily against the stone floor, the white pearl in the dragon’s jaw glowing.

Anna shook her hand, but there weren’t any signs of permanent damage.

“What the hell?!”

The white pearl emitted a faint hum, but that died as the glow faded.

Some kind of chosen-one type of thing?

Well…

“Uh…”

She felt gross for thinking it, but she had to see if there was something she could do!

Careful not to touch the hilt, she lifted it and placed it on the skeleton’s open hand.

Of course, nothing happened, leaving her feeling a little silly.

“What do I do with this?” She shook her head. “Surely, this isn’t what you thought would help me!”

She placed the sword gently beside the skeleton, then turned her gaze to the last item: the satchel.

It looked like a simple bag, although it still appeared to be fresh despite how old the body likely was.

Anna pulled it open, and the only contents were blood-red herbs, similarly colored beads, and what appeared to be a Sigil!

“But, it’s… dead?” She picked it up, rolling it around her palm.

The orb looked and felt like a Sigil, but what should be colors bouncing around and strange symbols was instead a gathering of multicolored dust on the bottom and illegible scribbles. It looked more like a broken snow globe!

“Do Sigil’s actually… expire?”

That warranted further study!

But not now, as there was nothing else to glean from rolling it around her palm.

“That’s it?” Anna rummaged through the satchel, but it really did just have a few herbs and beads. Once she removed the Sigil, it was practically weightless.

So, then, what?

Her findings were naturally extremely fascinating—even just the ivory bones. But how were these supposed to help?

She picked up one of the beads. It felt like…

“Wait… is this a pill?” It felt like one and was the same color as the herbs, so it most likely was!

But what did that mean?

There wasn’t anything else around the skeleton, so whatever her alter-ego saw that gave her confidence they could escape had to be among these items!

But how?

Was she supposed to take a mysterious pill that could be hundreds of years old?

Was she still able to absorb the Sigil, even though it looked dead?

Could the sword be used somehow?

Maybe the cloak itself, an object similarly untouched by time, could help her?

She rubbed the fabric, and it felt of finer quality than anything she had worn back on Earth! To say it felt like she was rubbing clouds felt like an understatement.

But could she really effectively rob a corpse?

“God… what am I supposed to do here?” Anna let go of the cloak, letting it drape the skeleton once more.

Presumably, the letter had their experience and would likely hold the key to getting out of the chamber. But the writer obviously couldn’t expect a human to be the one there!

“So, either these are some kind of supercharge pill that will give me extreme powers,” Anna mused while rolling the small pill in her palm, “Or I’m supposed to do something with that sword.”

Both options seemed unlikely. One would require her to blindly eat a pill that could cause irreparable damage to her body, and the other was just a sword she couldn’t use!

“Unless there’s a link?” Anna switched her gaze from the pill to the sword. “Hmm~”

Perhaps eating the pill would make her capable of using the sword? There were a lot of the pills in the satchel, so that did make some sense.

Again, though, that would require blind faith.

She picked up the Sigil again.

“Maybe—” She stopped, another idea forming in her head as she looked at the sword. Specifically, the orb on the hilt and the beautiful gems.

What if she tried to use it like she would absorb a Sigil?

The idea was a silly one, and she’d be embarrassed to say it to someone else… but what if it was like a sword that chose its master? She recalled a scene like that in one of her friend’s games!

Her black ring hummed, emerging from her wrist. Hearing it quietly whir felt a bit surreal, as she hadn’t done that in months! Another thing she learned, though—silencing it completely.

But her hand halted when she reached for the hilt.

Did she really want to take someone else sword?

Anna sighed, the hesitation only brief.

“I don’t think I have a choice.” She grabbed the hilt and immediately attempted to send mana into her ring in the same way she would when connecting to a Sigil. “Please, forgive me.”

She closed her eyes as her grip tightened around the hilt, anticipating an intense electric shock.

Yet, nothing came. Before she could feel excited about the prospect, she was doused with cold water.

“Still?!” Try as she might, she was still unable to pull the sword from its sheath! “Then, what— AH!”

Suddenly, a whirlpool formed within the white pearl on the hilt, emitting a violent hum as it simultaneously pulled on Anna’s mana!

Anna instinctively released her grip… or she tried.

It was like her hand was super glued to it, and she couldn’t do a thing as the pearl greedily stole her mana!

Even when it felt like a large chunk of it was gone, the thing kept going!

Anna quickly activated her enhancements on her arms, running it at max.

She ripped her hand away from the hilt. “How much are you going to—”

Anna fell to the ground, sitting as the sword fell from her hands and thudded against the floor.

The hum and whirlpool disappeared as if they weren’t even there, and her mana returned to its semi-chaotic, recovering state. Except, more than half of it was gone!

She didn’t feel anything abnormal, other than a returned tiredness from the amount of mana it took from her.

“Can I at least…” she mumbled, reaching for the hilt.

As expected, she could grab it with no resistance!

But she couldn’t unsheath it, still.

“What?!” she shouted. “You have got to be kidding me! What more do you want?!”

The pearl glowed slightly as she touched it, but nothing else happened.

Anna stood up, dusting herself off.

Rather than depressed, she was angry!

This chunk of metal just stole a significant amount of mana from her, and yet still wouldn’t let her simply unsheath the blade!

She clicked her tongue as she picked the sword up by its hilt. This time, she only materialized her ring above her head—perhaps having direct access to mana flow would cause it to indiscriminately steal.

“Actually…”

It felt lighter.

There was still some weight, but nothing like it was before!

She easily lifted the sword into the air.

It felt like she could pour mana into it the same way she could if she were to run her enhancements.

“Storing it? Using it for something? Maybe unlocking hidden abilities!” She exasperatingly sighed. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

Unless she felt like sitting down for hours and repeatedly cycling mana into it, she wouldn’t be able to use the blade for anything! And that wasn’t something she could do. Her mana was still recovering from what happened early and she couldn’t run the risk of overexerting it.

She put the sword on the ground, releasing her ring.

Another thing she expected—its weight returned.

“A sword I can only use when I want to feed it my mana?” Anna clicked her tongue. “No thanks!”

While cool to have, she had absolutely zero interest in fighting at close range. Her battle—if she could even call it that—with the statue reaffirmed that decision. She was shorter than average and had little strength, after all!

The cut on her forearm served as a reminder that she did not want to engage in melee.

“I suppose having it as an option isn’t a bad thing… if you would just let me use you!”

But that could also indicate another purpose of those red pills.

They might serve as some form of doping to make the wielder of the sword bypass whatever restrictions it had.

“If it was so powerful that it needed a drug just to use, would you really have died to those?” Anna asked, looking at the broken ribs on the skeleton.

Technically, it could have been a result of a wide number of things. Perhaps they were injured before coming here or just suffered a surprise attack. Or… the pills were deadly.

Regardless of which was true, there were definitely going to be side effects from using such a pill!

“Ahhh!” Anna exclaimed, rustling her hair in annoyance. “What am I supposed to do here, gamble?!”

She picked up the sword and satchel rather than putting them in her space, lest they require a large amount of mana to move.

After one more glance toward the body and another bow of her head, she returned to the stage.

Anna clicked her tongue as she approached the stand—nothing happened when the sword came close to it, dashing that subconscious hope.

It felt like she was in some stupid escape room.

She performed another check, but there really wasn’t anything else she could try; the solution was obviously the core from the statue.

“Damn it,” she whispered.

Her options were limited: take the key and risk the statue just charging in, try to fight the statue again with a sheathed sword, or take the pill and hope it actually did something.

And she wasn’t about to take a strange pill!

She could take the key, but there was no way it was that easy! It could very well be a trap, and taking it without the key could just kill her on the spot.

“Hmm~” She hummed, holding the sword like a cane. She would need enhancements to even swing it! No conjuring rings near it, either!

Well, her path forward was at least somewhat clear.

Laying it on the ground, Anna sat beside the altar. She still needed to regain some mana before attempting another fight!

But that wasn’t entirely the case…

Taking the step forward was daunting.

That statue, the unmoving beast of stone, almost killed her.

She heavily sighed, hugging her knees as she attempted to keep the memory from repeating in her mind.

No matter what, she had to fight that thing soon.

Or… rot away in some alien chamber.

“God… I really miss Aria.”